A common cause of network outages is due to damage caused to underground assets, such as Fiber Optics Cable (FOC) by construction work such as excavation. Accordingly, it is desirable to implement procedures to avoid damaging unseen assets by equipment on a worksite. A common approach implemented by machine operators is to rely on physical location markers provided on-site and maps. Manual approaches, however, are inaccurate, unreliable and inconvenient. Some automated systems exist that identify the locations of underground assets within a work area, monitor the location of equipment working within the area relative to the asset location and providing asset location and proximity information to the equipment operator.
Existing systems for providing an operator with information about the location of hidden or underground assets, however, do not effectively prevent damage to underground assets in practical scenarios. For example, in some cases, due to field operations noise, an equipment operator may not hear or see alerts. In some situations, not all vehicles are equipped with a tracking unit for recording real-time equipment locations. In some situations, broadband wireless communication is not available between the in-vehicle tracking units and back-end infrastructure, which can make it difficult to obtain asset location data or provide real-time location of the equipment to a back-end system. Furthermore, existing approaches also fail to effectively monitor and guide an operator on how to avoid an asset perimeter in situations where the actual location of the underground asset or map data is intended to be kept confidential or subject to other such usage restrictions.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.